In an article dated April 13, 2012, Julie Moos posted a very interesting story on Poynter.org about Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes’ visit to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The day before, Ailes gave the Roy H. Park Distinguished Lecture at the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication. According to Moos, about 350 people attended the event.
CLICK HERE to read how Ailes “elicited at least a few eye rolls” when he suggested the young journalists might want to change their major. You’ll want to read her entire blog because it includes several fascinating quotes by Ailes such as:
- “If you’re going into journalism if you care, then you’re going into the wrong profession … I usually ask (journalists) if they want to change the world in the way it wants to be changed.”
*cough* Ahem. Okay… I’ll start. I’m Dawn and I’m a blogger. (Hi, Dawn!)I think the blog as a mieudm is a more interactive mieudm than the traditional media (print, radio, and TV) because it invites discussion and builds a community of like-minded individuals. The mieudm can be networked into such communities. An example is clearly my connection with other Conservative blogs in the state. We build a connection among ourselves and often reference each other in our writings.As far as how blogs connect/compare/contrast with journalism as we used to know it? I’m not sure. Obviously, I don’t research and report NEW stories. I comment on and analyze what already published accounts are reporting. I do “journal” but I don’t consider what I do to be journalism in the traditional sense of getting a “scoop” and chasing down the story. Blogs, in my mind, are more like “letters to the editor” but they are ALL published rather than being at the mercy of the editor of a paper or the screener of calls to a radio show. My opinion is out there in cyberspace for anyone to see if he/she chooses to read it. Transparency is a big difference between bloggers and journalists. Journalists, even though they filter their facts through their own biases, claim “objectivity” while bloggers put their biases right out there in front of their commentary. We make no bones about our allegiances and our ideologies. Journalists might tell you that they must claim objectivity to be taken seriously; however, most of us know immediately on reading a headline which angle the reporter has come at the story given his/her biases. We know Right-colored language from Left-colored language.So, there are my two-cents. Just thinking via the keyboard… I’m intensely curious what you all think! People who read blogs must have some opinion on what they’re reading on blogs versus what they read in their papers or see on TV; people who blog must have some opinion on what they’re writing and why. Speak up, y’all!